Sabre Corporation
SABR
recently revealed that the national airline of the Republic of Serbia, Air Serbia, successfully implemented its Dynamic Availability software. The integration of the software will help the air carrier quickly sense and respond to the market conditions with optimized pricing.
Sabre’s Dynamic Availability software leverages travel behavior, shopping data, and other information from the company’s marketplace and other sources. Thereafter, the machine-learning models use the data to generate recommendations that will help to drive incremental revenue opportunities.
Sabre has disclosed that Air Serbia is also exploring the use of its recently launched Air Price IQ. Powered by Sabre Travel AI, Air Price IQ allows airlines to dynamically provide offers to travelers based on preferences, marketplace insights and purchase probability. The solution helps air carriers to create a more personalized traveling experience while maximizing the revenue opportunities.
Jiri Marek,
General Manager Commercial and Strategy at Air Serbia
said, “As we embark on a period of ambitious recovery and growth, building cutting-edge technology, using real-time data, artificial intelligence and machine learning will be key to our success.” He further added, “We are excited to partner with Sabre on these intelligent software solutions that will redefine our fare pricing and passenger experience.”
The deal is likely to aid the leading travel-related software and technology provider in expanding its customer share in the Airlines Solutions segment. SABR has its customer base in more than 160 nations, with more than 425,000 agency partners globally. It is one of the largest marketplaces in the world that manages approximately $260 billion worth of global travel spending annually.
With a rise in vaccinated traveling and the lifting of restrictions worldwide, Sabre is poised to capitalize on the travel industry’s improving market scenario. The company’s Travel Solutions segment revenues totaled $390 million in the third quarter compared with $237 million in the year-ago quarter.
Of late, Sabre has been winning consecutive deals from major global airlines, hoteliers and travel agencies. Last week, Thai-based premium-oriented airline, Nok Air, entered two long-term strategic agreements with the company to support its evolution of a new business strategy.
In December, it signed a partnership with Gran Colombia de Aviación (GCA Airlines) to power the carrier’s future revenue growth while reaching the new market segments. In the same month, it entered a long-term, multi-faceted strategic partnership with American Express Global Business Travel focused on developing technologies that will enable the future of corporate travel distribution.
In November, Sabre inked a long-term partnership with the Hanover, Germany-based TUI Group to globally distribute the latter’s own hotel brands, including TUI Blue, Robinson and TUI Magic Life. Before that, it entered a distribution partnership with Calafia Airlines to enable the distribution of flights and services to travel agencies in the United States through its travel marketplace. Thus, it helped the airline to accelerate revenue growth and expand its market reach.
In November, it partnered with Japan-based Hotel Keihan Chain to create tourism opportunities in the country. Separately, it entered a distribution agreement with the second-largest hotel group in China, Huazhu Group, to expand the global reach for its upscale, luxury hotel brands and support the latter’s global growth strategy.
Sabre’s last-reported results for the third quarter of 2021 reflected its move toward stabilization after the severe impact of the pandemic-led economic crisis. Additionally, optimism over COVID-19 vaccinations and an uptick in economic activities could result in faster-than-expected recovery in its operating performances. The fall in the company’s gross bookings and reservation-system transactions from the pre-pandemic level has been gradually slowing down, which is encouraging.
However, Sabre’s near-term prospects look gloomy, given the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 crisis. Additionally, seasonality in the travel industry and stiff competition are perpetual headwinds. Moreover, a high debt level, low cash balance and pricing pressure are added concerns.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Currently, Sabre carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Some better-ranked stocks from the broader technology sector include Google-parent
Alphabet
GOOGL
,
Diodes
DIOD
and
PTC Inc.
PTC
, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here
.
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